Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot

Summary: In his classic novel The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoevsky portrayed Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin as a perfect figure who inevitably becomes corrupted by a materialistic society. Throughout Part I of The Idiot, the Prince is a Christ-like figure who projects simple innocence and purity; however, in subsequent parts he becomes a suspicious, corrupted man whose epilepsy worsens and eventually causes his downfall.

Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Idiot"

Dostoevsky's comment in a letter to his publisher "My idea was to portray the perfect man. It seems to me that nothing could be more difficult, especially in these times...Only sheer desperation has impelled me to come to grips with an idea, which so far has defeated everyone" yet our protagonist, Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, an epileptic, is drawn as a perfect figure, but the society corrupts him. Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" closely follows the degradation of the Prince Myshkin's noble character, in exposure to the corrupted Russian society, until the final epileptic relapse that destroys him permanently.

Prince Myshkin portrays a Christ-like figure through his simple innocence and automatic assumption of human purity. By just being introduced into a completely new environment, the Prince's perfection is untouched by society, such as a child. The beginning of Part I, his redeeming features are accented...